I’ve made many references in various articles here about the importance of good photos when marketing a home for sale. Over the last few months, I’ve “put my money where my mouth is“. I bought what I call my “big girl” camera.
Photo taken with my Blackberry
Then I had to buy a book to figure out how to use it because the mini instructions that came with the camera assumed the user actually knew something about SLR’s. Then I found I really needed to buy a longer range flash attachment. Of course, I already had a tripod.
All told, I’ve invested about $1000 to take nice photos of my listings. I’m only about 1/4 of the way through the big book, so I’ve still got a lot to learn. AUTO is my favorite go-to setting right now, but I’ll get there.
This Sony A-300 is a great camera for a Realtor® because it goes down to 18mm, which means much more of the room can be in the photo. No it’s not a funny looking fisheye lens … it’s just a wider shot. The other handy thing is the LED viewing screen. It is movable up or down so if I hold the camera high over my head – because I’m not real tall - I can tilt the screen to still see the image. Or I can hold the camera low and tilt the screen up to see the image. That’s handy because getting down on my knees isn’t always convenient – especially outside in snow or mud.
The new flash attachment can be tilted to bounce the light off the ceiling, thus lighting the whole room or targeted to brighten a specific area. Its only negative is that the batteries can be drained when shooting a large home. I normally take 100-200 photos. The batteries last through the 100 photos but give out by the time I reach 200.
I still carry my little Nikon CoolPix2 in the car for quick shots or videos during my day, and of course, my Blackberry camera is ALWAYS with me. But for the serious stuff, my BIG GIRL camera gets to go along.
Now, if I could just figure out this ISO-thingey.
Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
I finally got rid of my land line phone. I had written about doing that last summer but I kept putting it off until I was REALLY, REALLY sure.
Ana winds prevail, although I’m not sure. I do know that when we rounded a curve on the freeway east of LA, we saw mile after mile of probably hundreds of tall turbines. Some were turning while others were stopped. I learned later that whether they rotate or not, depends upon the demand for electricity.
The problem with polls …
When I hear the news media cite the results of the most recent political polls, I tend to be skeptical. In fact, when I read the results of any poll, I like to also read HOW the survey was conducted. Very often that review reveals information that would suggest the poll could be skewed to generate whatever results the pollster was seeking.
Perhaps the main reason that I really question poll results is that so many rely on landline phones. How many people do you know that no longer have a landline phone? Or if they do, how many are likely to answer the phone and take the time to answer a pollster’s questions? Especially in today’s world where we’re so concerned with identity theft.
I thought of my own little immediate family, which I consider rather normal … for the most part.
If a pollster were to put the 10 of us into neat little boxes, here’s how we would stack up:
If you were to do a similar “poll” of your family, what would the results look like? Do you think those phone polls are capturing a “representative sampling” of the population?
Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
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Posted in Commentary, Surveys, Technology
Tagged poll surveys